Monday, November 2, 2009

Haruki Kadokawa counts down the seconds to the release of "The Laughing Policeman"

by Chris MaGee

To say that producer/ director Haruki Kadokawa is eccentric would be a bit of an understatement. Barring his 1993 arrest for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into Japan, which might explain some of his eccentricity, we're talking about a guy who got 3,000 extras and 800 horses to film the historic Battle of Kawanakajima on the plains of Alberta and who flew in a zero gravity "vomit comet" high-altitude jet to help promote Takashi Miike's 2008 film "God's Puzzle". He also made public statements last year about how he was "shedding my human trappings and approaching the province of the immortals,” and explaining that "Brahma created the universe and placed filters on the minds of human beings. In my case, those barriers are about to be broken. I think I’ll live to be 200.”

Okay, let's say for a second that 67-year-old Kadokawa lives to be 200. If his recent statements about how he'll retire from filmmaking if his upcoming directorial effort "The Laughing Policeman", starring Nao Omori and Yasuko Matsuyuki, is a flop then he'll certainly have a lot (and I mean a lot) of time on his hands. And that segues nicely into Kadokawa's most recent weirdness... posing as a human clock on Japanese Tv to promote the release of "The Laughing Policeman".

Kadokawa appeared on a number of Japanese television stations last Friday dressed as a SWAT team policeman and using his arms as the arms of a giant clock to tick down to the release of "The Laughing Policeman" in Japanese theatres on November 14th. Puts Flavour Flav and his clock necklace to shame if you ask me.

You can check out the clip featuring the new time-keeping Kadokawa at the official site for "The Laughing Policeman" here. Thanks to CinemaCafe.net for this bit of news.